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Vedanta Desika on Kakasura VruththAntham

From the Bhakti List Archives

Vijay Srinivasan • October 27, 1996 


Dear Prapatti Group Members:

Recently, I was reading the Ramayana and that brought back some recollections 
of the KakAsura story, the nuances of which was wonderfully captured by Swami 
Desika and which I was lucky to hear from Navalpakkam Swamigal.  Swami Vedanta 
Desika wrote a work called Adaikalapattu which is roughly the Tamil equivalent 
of his more popular Nyasa Dasakam in sanskrit.

In the very first verse of Adaikalapattu, Swami Desika compares the efforts of 
a sadhaka before Prapatti with those of Kakasura  {Threen lokAn samparikramya 
thamEva sharanam gathaha (Vide Ramayana),   Yethdisaiyum muzhandru odi 
ilaiththu vizhum kagam pol....}.  Kakasura ran in all directions, but in vain, 
to escape the Rama Banam.  He sought the asylum of all the Devatas including 
that of his father Devendra.  But no one could offer him protection.  In the 
process of running, Kakasura accidentally realized one thing.  When he ran in a 
direction away from the Lord the arrow seemed to approach him closer and he 
could immediately feel the ferocity of the Astram.  On the otherhand, the 
moment, he turned running towards the direction of the Lord the arrow kept a 
distance from him assuming that this fellow might after all seek the 
forgiveness of the Lord.  Thus after having strayed far away from the Lord, 
Kakasura intuitively realized the fortuitousness of running towards the Lord 
and finally realizing his helpnessness he fell on the Lord's feet.  Finally as 
the story goes Kakasura got saved after a minor punishment.

But what a great upakAram Swami Desika has done for us.  A simple story from 
the vast ocean of Ramayana suddenly strikes us with great truths that was 
latent in it.  May our Acharya Sookthis continue to inspire us.  

Vijayaraghavan